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Hello! Thank you so much for visiting me in the Attic, it's lovely to see you. My name is Lucy and I'm a happily married Mum with three children. We live in a cosy terraced house on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales in England which we are slowly renovating and making home. I have a passion for crochet and colour and love to share my creative journey. I hope you enjoy your peek into my colourful little world x

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January 08, 2014

No Knead Bread

I have wanted to have a go at bread making for quite some time, many years in fact, but something about it has always scared me. It has always seemed to me to be such an accomplished thing with so many skills and rules to master. Of course, I bet plenty of you make bread very successfully and will happily tell me I am wrong. Nothing to be afraid of Lucy! And yet, the fear had lodged itself and would not be shaken. I have the same fear about roasting joints of meat. Fear of messing it up, of wasting precious time and ingredients and feeling like a huge big flop.

Besides, I live in a town with the most excellent local bakery just five minutes walk down the road. And what's the big deal about getting all doughy anyway? What's the big appeal?

Most likely the smell. Oh, the smell of freshly baked bread filling the kitchen is pretty high on my list of Very Most Excellent Smells. And at a time of year when we are spending many cold, wet, gloomy days confined to home, the idea of filling it with mouthwatering smells followed by warm, fragrant taste sensations is pretty appealing.

On the very last day of 2013, I threw caution to the wind and pushed my bread-making fear aside. I had been lurking in the depths of the www and somehow stumbled across this post. It describes (in beautiful, no-frills detail) how to make the sort of bread that I adore :: Artisan bread. The sort of chewy, tasty bread that has an air-holey middle and a crusty outer. The sort of simple, rustic bread that I associate with my time spent in the Greek islands. Perfect for dunking and mopping, in soups, dips and flavoured oils.

Janet made it sound sooooo simple. And the best, most wondrous thing of all, aside from the simplicity of the four basic ingredients, is that this is NO KNEAD BREAD. No knead I tell ya!!! How can this possibly be true? How can this be so easy?

But really, it is this simple. The ingredients are flour, water, yeast and salt.

That. Is. It.

Janet's recipe is written in US terms, so I had to do a little bit of research and experimentation to translate the ingredients and measurements. I'll write out my English recipe at the end of this post for you, but here are a few notes....

The flour (called "All Purpose" in the US) is basically plain flour in the UK. I have tried normal plain white flour and it worked just fine, but I had slightly better (lighter) results by using strong white flour.

The water just needs to be tepid (barely warm) from the tap.

The salt is normal sea salt.

The yeast is the dried stuff which you can buy in a sachet or a tin. It looks like little granules (as in the second picture above). If you use "active dried yeast" it works fine but you're looking at 18-24 hours rising time. If you use the finer, "instant dried yeast", the rising time is quicker, more like 12 hours.

When you mix these four things together, you get a lump of wetish, sticky, shaggy dough. Remember, no kneading! Just good mixing is all you need to do. Then you simply cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave it in a warmish place to rise. You leave it for aaaaaaaages, 12-20 hours in fact.

After that time, it looks like a bubbly, gloupy, sticky, unappealing mess. Seriously worrying actually. But persevere, and squish those worrisome feelings back down. Replace them with optimism.

Now this dough is VERY STICKY. You need to be prepared. Get some hot, soapy water into your sink ready to deal with your hands which will be covered in very sticky dough in a short while.

You need to heat your oven and your cooking vessel, heat them both up for 30 mins. You need a very hot oven, and a suitable pot/substantial dish with a lid. Something like a casserole pot.

Prepare your work area - a sheet of greaseproof paper or baking parchment and LOTS of flour. Scrape your dough out of the bowl. It will by floppy and sticky and wet. Flour your hands, and gently shape the dough into a smooth ball. Plenty of flour, you are only shaping, not kneading.

It should look something like this. Not bad eh? Optimism, remember! Cover it with clingfilm and leave it rest for 30 mins while your oven and casserole pot heat up. Now go wash your sticky, dough-covered hands, and be glad that I told you to have some hot soapy water ready.

After 30 mins, the dough can go into the casserole pot. Before you plop it in, take a strip of baking parchment about 4 inches wide and lay it across the bottom of your pot (this will enable you to lift your loaf out when it and the pot are both red hot). Now plop your dough in, it'll lose it's shape a bit, but don't worry. It'll be fine.

Put the lid on and put the pot straight back into the hot oven.

You have 30 minutes to wait.

Go and do something AbSoRbiNg to take your mind off worrying about the success/failure of your Artisan Loaf.

Now this next bit is pretty amazing. Take your pot out of the oven and remove the lid...........

.........WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The transformation is so completely fabulous, you will be gasping with pleasure and hopping with delight! Leave the lid off and put it back into the oven for 15 more minutes to brown up the crust.

Ta-dah!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One gorgeous loaf of Artisan Bread. It really IS this simple.

And it really DOES look (and smell) this good.

I honestly couldn't beleive it when I made this first loaf. I was incredulous. It didn't seem possible that this good looking loaf could be made with such simple ingredients and equipment and so little work!

I managed to let it cool for maybe 15 minutes before cutting into it.

The texture inside is wonderful. It is full of air bubbles and soft and chewy.

My very first slice was slathered liberally in butter. Oh my.

It was really very, very, very good. Very good indeed.

This robust, rustic loaf of homemade bread made me so VERY happy last week, it really did.

Of course, we all devoured it in a single day, it was just too good to leave alone. So that evening I mixed up a second batch of dough so that it could sit over night. It takes maybe 5 minutes to weigh out and stir up the ingredients, it is so simple and so quick.

My second loaf was made the same as my first, but with poppy seeds pressed onto the surface.

That really did make a fantastic bread even more awesome.

My third loaf the very next day had sunflower seeds added in. Super good. And after a little bit of research on the www, I have compiled a little list of potential add-in ingredients to try in the very near future....

lemon, rosemary and gruyere

cranberry, orange and almond

Jalapeno cheddar

raisin, walnut cinnamon

pumpkin, sunflower and poppy seed

mixed herb with rosemary, chives and thyme

sun dried tomato and basil

olive, garlic and rosemary

Here is my UK recipe conversion, I urge you to give it a try.

400g strong white bread flour

1/2 teaspoon instant dried yeast

1 tsp sea salt

300ml tepid water.

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl, cover with clingfilm and leave for 12-18 hours in a moderately warm place. My kitchen is freeezing (no heating) so I stand my bowl near the radiator in the living room.

You need a casserole pot or pyrex dish, something with a lid that will withstand high heat.

Oven temp is hot! 450F / 230C / Gas 8

Heat the oven and the pot for 30 mins before the bread goes in.

Shape the dough into a ball, cover with clingfilm and and leave it to rest for the 30mins it takes to heat the oven and pot.

Bake for 30mins, remove the lid, bake for a further 15 mins. Remove to a wire wrack to cool slightly.

Comments

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Came across your post via Google. I been looking at various recipes regarding this bread. Yeast and me are not friends but I'm giving this a try. A bit late to the party but we shall see what it turns out like in the morning

I've baked this twice, using the exact ingredients given, once with strong flour with 20% spelt content and once with T55 French bread flour. I proved the dough for 12 hours then used a Le Creuset cast-iron casserole pot to bake the bread at 240 degrees (35 mins covered, 15mins uncovered) On both occasions, the crust was beautifully crunchy and delicious. The mixture was well aerated with large-ish holes, but I found the cooked dough rather damp and elastic. Next time, I will add 10% less water and possibly cook the bread for 10 minutes longer.

It's probably worth adding to this very motivational post that the time to leave the dough after mixing is apparently not just to allow it to rise (I suspect you'll be at ol' "double the volume" stage well before the 12 to 20 hours that Lucy advises!) but to allow the all important gluten develop. I'm told that this is particularly critical in no-knead recipes because it is the physical kneading in the traditional method the helps to do this. Hope this helps.

This worked like a dream for me - can't wait to crack it open tomorrow morning for a lazy Sunday morning fry-up!
In a fan oven up to 230, I could have done with only 10 mins with the lid off - I can't wait to try it again so I can tinker with timings for my oven.

Thank you so much for the detailed instructions, exceptionally helpful pictures and delightful delivery!

Greetings from Canada. I just found your website and so glad that I did. Everything on here makes me smile :) This bread looks amazing. I'm whipping up a batch this afternoon ready for tomorrow. Wish me luck!

It worked!!! Thank you so much for the UK version of the recipe. Have made cranberry bread, cheese bread, and cinnamon/sugar swirl bread. Just waiting for my first wholemeal experiment to rise: 150g wholemeal, rest plain white, then 90g walnuts.

I am slicing the loaf when it is coolish (about 8 thick slices plus crusts), then freezing in ziplock bags. Defrosts beautifully. Also toasts well from defrosted.

You should try "No Knead Peasant Bread." It does not require any pre-heating of the pot so it's a lot less dangerous. It's delicious and can be made right in a pyrex bowl! There's a nice video that goes with it so it is incredibly easy to follow. It also only needs 1 and 1/2 hours to rise so you can put it together at 2 and have it with your soup at 6. :)

Thanks for this lovely recipe, just as easy as you describe. My crust came out rather hard though - any suggestions? I do have a fan-assisted oven, do I need to adjust the time/temp? Would really appreciate your advice! Thanks, Sarah

Tastes nice but hasn't risen!
The baking paper went on fire! Something like Keystone Cops but at least I'm still smiling and another lot is proving! Not giving up! I have RA and I A and as my hands are disabled this is a great chance for me to enjoy my creativity.... Praise God for crochet, gardening, walking and the many things I refuse to give up on... Cheers

Thank you for this recipe - I've been driving myself demented trying to work out cup measurments to grams and mls and getting conflicting info - making this bread every day and my boys and hubby love it - delicious with roasted peppers and feta mixed in too !

Hi, I love this bread, but am struggling with the paper! It sticks to the bread when it bakes and I can't get it off. Tried using a strip of paper and thats just the same. I'm using greaseproof, but think this might be the prob. What is the UK product that I need to buy please?x

I'm finally giving this a go. The pot and lid r heating up and the dough is rising a second time. I sure hope this works -- I used half white flour and half whole wheat flour. Also used yeast labeled specially for whole grain. My fingers r crossed!

I have a new habit. Every Saturday evening I prepare the dough, every Sunday morning I make this bread. I love being up at 7 knowing I have the kitchen to myself for a while, and our Sunday breakfast is delicious beyond words.

I've read about this recipe in several places, yours looks way better than most I've seen so I'm gonna do it, in fact I have half done it as its sitting doing its magical jiggerry pokery in the living room.
My dilemma is this, I don't own a lidded stone or glassware pot, when casseroling I use my slow cooker. Can I use a metal lidded oval roasting tin? Or do I have to try to balance one terracotta pan upside down on the bread filled one? Hmmmmm.